The original release (10th November 1993)
The 4 CDs were packaged in a tall box, which also contained a booklet with a biography of Mike, and his Virgin discography.

Repackaged album (26th November 2001)
This version is packaged in a slimline case.

Compiling Elements

Elements was originally intended to be a collection of rarities (while the single-disc version of Elements would contain more familiar material, aimed at the casual buyer). With this in mind, a large part of Mike's Virgin catalogue was remastered specifically for this compilation, although the finished album contained only a few tracks that were rare or previously unreleased.

Several tracks were considered in the early stages:

Mike Oldfield's Single (Theme From Tubular Bells)
Don Alfonso
Don Alfonso (German version)
Spanish Tune
In Dulci Jubilo (For Maureen)
All Right Now
Five Miles Out - demo
Family Man - demo
Mount Teide - demo
Music For The Video Wall

An updated track list was published in The Mike Oldfield Information Service magazine in July 1993. The tracks were presented in chronological order, which created difficulties for the compilers. The Path (released in 1986) would have appeared on Disc 4, until David Porter informed them that it was recorded in the late 1970s, and should therefore be moved to the appropriate position on Disc 2.

Thanks to his insistence, the previously unreleased Vivaldi Concerto In C (which had previously been dropped from the mail-order album Impressions) was also retained.

The tracklist had to be revised with the capacity of audio CDs in mind: Incantations Part 4 was replaced by an extract from Part 2; Foreign Affair and Far Country were added. From this revised list, several tracks were also dropped and/or replaced. These were:

Disc 1:
Froggy Went A-Courting
Don Alfonso
In Dulci Jubilo (For Maureen) - replaced by the later version

Bones and In The Pool were, however, included on the Moonlight Shadow CD single, which was released to promote Elements.

It is believed that Mike vetoed tracks with Anita Hegerland on vocals (such as Pictures In The Dark and Innocent, which would have been obvious choices for inclusion), because they had recently split at the time of the album's compilation.